All Blog Posts Tagged 'nature' (46)

The Bible is not a book of science, though the first Chapter of Genesis, as the nineteenth-century sociologist Max Weber points out, is the necessary prelude to science. It represents the first time people saw the universe as the product of a single creative will, and therefore as intelligible rather than capricious and mysterious.

Nature has no divinity. Indeed, in the Hebrew Bible, it became “undeified” as G. W. F. Hegel put it. Hegel observed (in lectures notes his students…

I brewed a pot of jasmine tea to begin with. I spooned it three teaspoonfuls of leaf into the pot of hot water, making sure it didn’t boil to avoid unnecessary bitterness. After a minute and a half of steeping I removed the leaves and went outside.

I had been looking forward to this all day. So I was rather nervous that the album I had planned to experience wouldn’t live up to my hopes. The sky above was overcast, the wind slight and cool. It was not cold enough to be…

What are some of the things in your life that make you happy? What are the greatest joys in your life? What gives you the greatest sense of achievement, and what are the moments in your life that you remember as the most important ones? Does religion play a part in any of these moments, feelings or personal possessions? Because according to many religious folk, the greatest thing in their life is their faith in God. This troubles me.

You're an animal. In fact, you're an ape! Yes you're an ape, your spouse is an ape, your mother and father are apes, your grandmother is an ape, and every person you know or don't know on the planet are all apes. Megan Fox, Salman Rushdie and Sacha Baron Cohen, all apes. And some of you don't like it. Why is this?

It's for a few reasons. One being that you look at the other animals in the world and think of them as stupid, or dirty, or food, and you couldn't… Continue

Added by Martin Pribble on September 13, 2011 at 11:46pm —
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The power of religion lies in the power of fear; fear of death, fear of the unknown, fear of people who are different, fear of God, and the fear that a lifetime of belief may in fact be wrong. Many religious folks might deny the last point, but I'll get to what I mean by that in a minute.

All people fear dying, but not all fear being dead. As Mark Twain is famous… Continue

Added by Martin Pribble on September 13, 2011 at 11:45pm —
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I've had a few people ask me lately "Why don't you pick on other religions apart from Christianity and Islam? After all, there are thousands you could choose from." Well the answer is pretty simple, but threefold.

Firstly, I live in Australia, which is a predominantly Christian nation. Upwards of 60% of Australians identify themselves as Christians (according to the 2006 census). Most of the first westerners to arrive here were Christian, and that tradition has been carried on…

Previously, I discussed the idea that we can now definitively show that there was no single couple from which all of humanity descended, and discussed a few points made by ProfMTH, namely that Paul references Adam in same way he references Jesus. To me, this seemed a clear and inescapable contradiction to a foundational principle of Christianity, since Paul is obviously wrong in referencing Adam. Now this assertion faced…

I've been thinking lately about spirituality. No, I'm not suggesting I am about to join a cult, take up tantric meditation or go on a vision quest. What I have been wondering is, is there any basis or evidence for a spiritual or metaphysical part of human existence?

Firstly, I think we need to define what it is we mean by "spirituality". If it means we are all inhabited by everlasting souls, that our existence on earth is a stepping-stone to the afterlife, or that our personalities… Continue

I originally posted this at my blog Martin S Pribble, and it was subsequently picked up as an "Article" at RDFRS, which made me quite happy. It has caused quite a discussion at both sites, so I thought it would be good to share with you lot also.

Religion is running scared from advances in science, particularly brain science such as neurology. Why? Because the brain is the final frontier in uncovering the reasons for belief in superstitions, religion and a higher…

I found this video while sorting through my G+ stream yesterday, and found it too alarming to not blog on the subject. This is surely enough to get your hackles up, and it should concern not only atheists, agnostics and skeptics, but every thinking human on the planet. This is surely going to be of concern in the future.

The video opens with this statement:

"In what has become one of the greatest deceptions of our day, radical environmentalism…

This "From the Mailbox" is a little different than what I usually receive, as you'll soon see. I won't use any names, except my own, and the spelling and grammar comes directly from the messages received. There were three in total, staring with this rather innocent and short one:

"Hi MartinDid anyone ever tell you that Jesus loves YOU!"

At first I thought this was a joke from one of my atheist readers, as sometimes we all get a little… Continue

Every religion says it is the right one, and there is no way that they can all be correct. In fact, I'd go so far to say that they are all wrong. But... science is wrong too. (!?)

In science and other practices that view and measure the natural world people readily admit that they have only some of the answers to the mysteries of the universe. When new information presents itself, that information is added to the knowledge already gathered, an if it means altering the information we… Continue

Since the most holy of weekends in the Christian calendar has now passed, the folks at Outreach Media have decided to shift their focus form worshiping the death of Jesus, to look at the topic of birth and conception. This month's poster reads:

It's undeniable; we are the single most advanced species of animal that we have identified to have ever existed on earth. Our social structures, brain power, our technologies, our innovations and our language is unrepeated in any other species on the planet.

We are self-aware, we are group aware, and we are of the imminence of death. We understand the basic needs for life, we understand the… Continue